Feeling Foolish

This happens a lot. Not me making this face, but Tyler makes me feel foolish... by repeating back to me exactly what I just said. He doesn't do it with any condescension in his voice, he's just confirming that I did say what he thought I said.

It really does happen all the time, but because I think I've worked to forget past incidences, and I don't have someone running around after me with a pen and paper to write them all down, like Yogi Berra or George Bush, I don't remember any, except the one that happened last Saturday.

Tyler and I were watching Game 3 of the World Series and late in the game, Philadelphia hit a home run, but the ball smashed into a camera and then bounced back onto the field. The umpires had a little meeting and decided to let it count as a home run. I did not see it happen because I was at the door giving out candy to one of the 5,000 Optimus Primes that came to our house that night.

When I came back into the room, Tyler explained what happened and I said, "so, it bounced back out?"

Tyler's eyebrows shoot up, "it bounced back out?" (Something has gone wrong.)

Slowly, I answer, "out of home run territory...?" (I'm really feeling lame at this point.)

His eyes narrow, "you mean, bounced back in."

"Bounced back in?"

And so forth. I think, in my head "in" was the stands. A box with defined sides. A ball goes IN to the stands when you hit a home run. So when it leaves the stands and goes back on to the field it goes OUT. Apparently, this is the exact opposite of the accepted baseball vernacular, which Tyler let me know by that eyebrow-raise-head-tilt combo.

It used to irritate me No End when he did this. Why couldn't he just let it go? He knows what I meant. Why did I have to marry an engineer who is so concerned with exactness, he wants to get a micro pipette for the kitchen so he can measure out a "splash"? I don't feel any less foolish now, but I'm more willing to let myself channel Lucille Ball and just laugh at how silly I sound.